two complex sentences for me

[Karim]

salamu allaikum,
i have here to complex sentences and need your help.

1.
this is a narrow about a women. she was bad and so on. and then it is said:
فقد أبى عليها لؤم طبعها الاّ أن تغدر بزوجها

abaa is to decline or to refuse and so on. but i dont understand. is here bad nature refuse her? and why is this second part of the sentence with illa, is there something excluded. i absolutey dont understand this sentence in meaning.

2. و لم يأْلُ جهدا في اسعاد شعبه

what is this ya'lu. does it come from yala=to go away??? but it should with lam be in majsum. why is damma at the end?


hope somebody can help.
salamu allaikum.

[icarus]

Assalamu alaikum brother. Let me attempt to unravel this somewhat. If anyone has another explanation, please don't hesitate to correct me.

Your first sentence is: فقد أبى عليها لؤم طبعها الاّ أن تغدر بزوجها

Here is a transliteration so you see what vowels signs are needed (I've used 3 to represent the letter ain and ' to represent hamza):

fa-qad 'abaa 3alay-haa lu'mu tab3i-haa 'illaa 'an taghdira bi-zowji-haa.

Literally, this means: So indeed the wickedness of her nature refused her (everything) except that she should act treacherously towards her husband.

i.e. So indeed the wickedness of her nature caused her (urged her) to betray her husband.

As you can see from the transliteration and the translation, the verb 'abaa is followed by 3laa to mean to deny/refuse someone and the faa3il of the verb 'abaa is lu'mu (wickedness), and lu'mu is also mudaaf; the mudaaf ilayhi of lu'mu is tab3i (nature, character), and tab3i is also mudaaf; the mudaaf ilayhi of tab3i is the dameer haa (of her).


Your second sentence is: و لم يأْلُ جهدا في اسعاد شعبه

Here is a transliteration so you see what vowels signs are needed (I've used 3 to represent the letter ain and ' to represent hamza):

wa lam ya'lu jahdan fee 'is3aadi sha3bi-hi

Literally, this means: And he did not fail with regards to effort in the making happy of his tribe

i.e. he spared no efforts (he went to any lengths) to make his tribe happy

Here, ya'lu is from the verb 'alaa ya'loo meaning to fail to do something. This is a naaqis waawi verb (weak letter waaw at the end) and it is indeed majzoom after lam, and the sign that it is majzoom is the removal of the waaw. This is why it appears as ya'lu in your sentence and not ya'loo or ya'luwu.

jahdan is the mansoob form of jahdun meaning effort and it is mansoob because it is tamyeez as it answers the question 'he did not fail with regards to what?', and the answer is 'he did not fail with regards to effort'.

'is3aadi is masdar of the verb 'as3ada, meaning 'to make happy' which is baab 'af3ala, and it is majroor because of the harful jarri fee. It is also mudaaf.

The mudaaf ilayhi of 'is3aadi is sha3bi, and sha3bi is also mudaaf.

The mudaaf ilayhi of sha3bi is the dameer hi.


I hope that this all makes sense, and I certainly welcome any corrections if I have made any mistakes in my translation or analysis.

[Karim]

salam and thanks dear brother.
so the literally meaning is not always the right translation.
'alaa ya'lu, how do i write them in arabic?
and baraka lahu fik brother.

[icarus]

Salam brother. After reading your reply, I realize I had made an error, which I have now corrected. The verb is 'alaa ya'loo (not ya'lu) as I had originally said. Unfortunately, I don't have the Arabic script, so I will have to spell it using English terms. 'alaa is written hamza (sitting on alif), laam, alif and ya'loo is written yaa', hamza (sitting on alif), laam, waaw.

And yes, you're right. Sometimes the literal translation is not always the best translation as every language has its own idioms. But it is always a good idea to start off with the literal translation as any other translation will be based on this.

[Karim]

salamu allaikum,
thank you very much for your answer, may allah bless you.